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Wednesday, October 17, 2012

FaceTime with Washington DC

Four amazing Weston Middle School students spent their morning Facetiming with Carla Wade from Oregon Department of Education and sharing with State Ed Tech Leaders in Washington DC about their experience learning in a true one to one iPad classroom.

At times the connection was sketchy but they made their point. Ryan, Michael, Emmaline, and Ali shared about how the iPad is making their learning more personalized, from updated instant news and facts at their fingertips to taking notes and having all their tools in one place (the iPad). They shared apps like iMovie, Pages, and Classnotes and shared how their teacher is organizing resources about the presidential election in modules using Livebinders. The group shared about the temptation to do other things with the iPad while in class but were quick to note that they would have it taken away if they weren't using it appropriately, which means expectations and management of the iPads are consistent and understood. One student explained that they are given time to explore with an app or new feature as well as taught by their teacher. The exploring time was important to them in learning how to use the iPad last year.

Check out more about their project in this video created last spring to showcase what the teachers and students accomplished in their first year.

Of course, 15 minutes of Facetiming isn't enough time to share all the great things that are happening at their school but they sure were able to fit a lot in a short amount of time. As one stated, the iPad does everything they could ever imagine a piece of technology could do and then some. They were all surprised at all the different ways the iPad could be used in their classes, from writing to science. Their hopes for the future? They would like to be able to take them home and wish all their textbooks were in ebook format!